Life's Lullaby
by Elle the ebil bunny
Summary: Fatally poisoned, Ryoma refuses the medication that would prolong his life. Instead, he leaves tennis, along with old life, behind. Next stop, New York City where Ryoma is pursuing...music?
1. The First Blow

Life's Lullaby  
The First Blow

Disclamer: If I owned Tennis no Ohjisama, all the guys would be gay…

* * *

Kirihara is picking up another tennis ball to hit against the wall. As he bends down, he sees out of the corner of his eye, a figure walking towards him holding a racket. He faces the figure for a split second and turns back to picking up a ball. "What is it Echizen? Do you have some business with me?" He asks, annoyed that someone is bothering him during his practice. 

"Hey... play a match with me." Ryoma suggests, causing Kirihara's eyes to widen in surprise as he stands.

* * *

Kachirou, Katsuo, and Horio are standing together, each holding a piece of paper and a ball basket. 

"Let's see... Where was Ryuzaki's group?" Horio asks, scratching his head, seemingly confused about where to bring the balls. He looks at the piece of paper, most likely about the group schedules."Um..." Katsuo is confused also, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Ah..." Kachirou gasps in surprise. He is looking intently at something. Horio turns towards him, his hand still scratching at his head."What is it, Kachirou?"

"Look! Ryoma-kun and Kirihara-san are playing a match." He points out to the other boys.

"Wha-!" Horio screams as he sees that Kachirou is telling the truth.

* * *

The two tennis players face each other on opposite ends of the tennis court. Kirihara breaks the silence, "I don't know what you're planning, but if you play a match with me, you too might be sent to the hospita-" 

Ryoma, being his rude and arrogant self, cuts him off, "Whatever, hurry up and play." He is smirking at his opponent, in a ready stance, knees bended slightly, waiting for Kirihara to serve.

Kirihara seems shocked at what Ryoma says, covering it up quickly with his own remark, "Heh... Since you put it that way, I won't hold back." His eyes open and he stares Ryoma down, getting ready to serve. He throws the ball high up in the air, jumping up and reaching his arm back. SMACK! The racket connects with the ball as it hurtles over the net. Ryoma runs over to the ball and backhands it. The two hit the ball back and forth and Kirihara comments, "Well... it might be more meaningful that playing against a wall."

Ryoma, being the smart ass he is, responds back, "Your vice-captain said that line to me too." He reaches his left arm back, hitting the ball back to Kirihara, who looks away for a second before hitting the ball, "Is that so..." He rushes up to the net, hitting the ball as hard as he could towards his opponent.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ann is telling Kamio the story of what had happened the day Kirihara fell down the stairs. She is sitting in the hallway, "I can't believe it turned into such a big problem." She looks down, guilty. Kamio, who is sitting next to her on the cold floor, looks down and responds, "I understand your feelings, Ann-chan. I still haven't even begun to forgive him either." The four team mates; Eiji, Oishi, Momo, and Kajimoto looked on as the scene unfolded, all shocked that something this emotional could have happened at tennis camp. 

Everyone was pulled out of their thoughts as a voice yelled out, "Hey, you guys!" Ohtori and Shishido run up to the group, alerting them. Shishido speaks up as they stop before Ann and Kamio, "Kirihara and Echizen are playing a match." The others snap their heads up as their eyes widen.

* * *

Ryoma smashes the tennis ball to the other half of the court and Kirihara runs to the net, jumping up to return the smash with another smash. 

Kachirou is surprised at this, exclaiming it to Katsuo and Horio. Horio is also surprised, "Whoa..."

And yet again, Ryoma jumps up to return Kirihara's smash with a smash of his own.

"Smash!" Kirihara thinks, "No..." Ryoma suddenly changes his stance, hitting a drop shot. "A drop shot?" Kirihara runs up to the net, as fast as he can, trying to return the ball. As soon as the ball hurtles over Ryoma's head, "Out..." It lands outside of the court.

"Sempai-tachi," Kachirou exclaims, seeing his sempai rushing towards the trio.

"How's the match going?" They ask, panting.

"Ryoma's leading," Kachirou responds, getting back into the game.

Momo, standing next to Oishi, wonders out loud, "That Kirihara... has he really changed?"

Everyone tenses at this and Oishi responds, "We'll know that if we watch this match." The group continues to watch the match as Ryoma fools Kirihara again, seeming to go for another drop shot, but instead hitting a lob. Kirihara stumbles back to hit the ball, failing to do so, and tripping over his feet to fall on his face. Everyone gasps in surprise.

* * *

"Okay, break time." Meanwhile, one of the other groups is given a break from practice. Sanada looks through the fences and spots something that catches his interest. 

"Sanada?" Fuji is wiping the sweat off his face and sees Sanada staring. Sanada looks down and responds, "Excuse me, I'll be right back." He walks away, off the courts, heading towards the Ryuzaki group. Fuji is left standing there, wondering what had happened.

* * *

Kirihara is still laying face down on the court. "Are you alright, Kirihara-san?" Ryoma asks, concerned, though putting on an indifferent facade. 

Kirihara responds, "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He gets up slowly, and the others see that his eyes are turning red and he licks his lips. Ryoma cannot see this, as Kirihara is standing with his back facing his opponent.

"Ah... That is... the same as that time." Kamio says as he remembers Kirihara's past matches.

Oishi worries, saying, "That guy... just as we suspected..." The match between Ryoma and Kirihara wears on until Kirihara hits a drop shot. Ryoma runs up to the net to hit it back and the others yell at him, "Don't do it, Echizen! Don't go up front!" Ryoma successfully hits the ball back and Kamio recaps, "It'll be a repeat of what happened with Tachibana-san!" Kirihara jumps up quickly and Ryoma falters in his step, as he had to slip into and awkward position to be able to hit the ball. The others yell at him, "Kirihara! Stop!" Kirihara pays no attention to him as he chuckles maniacally and smashes the ball... right into Ryoma's knee. Kirihara lands from his jump, smirking at Ryoma. Blood is slowly seeping out of the wound in Ryoma's knee and the group rushes to the court to be by his side. "Echizen, are you okay?" They attempt to help him up when he pushes them away, standing up slowly on his own, "Sempai-tachi, Tachibana-san, don't get on the court during a match."

Ann retaliates, "But! -" She is cut off by a glare from Ryoma, "We're not finished yet." He stubbornly leans on his other leg. The group hesitantly walks off the court, instead settling for watching the match in case anything else happens.

The match continues and Ryoma's wound seems to be opening more and blood gushes out of it. He hits a volley back to Kirihara as he stumbles back, falling on his back, racket falling away from him. Kirihara takes the chance to smash the ball, this time, right into Ryoma's stomach. Ryoma grunts in pain as a crack is heard by all the tennis players. Kirihara chuckles even more from his side of the court and the viewers of the math rush out to Ryoma, who is gasping in pain, sweat dripping down his forehead. He winces as Oishi tries to feel his stomach to see what is wrong. Eiji whips out his cell phone, from his pocket, frantically dialing the campus hospital service. A doctor rushes out onto the court with bandages and she kneels down next to Ryoma. The others move away slowly to give the woman space to work.

Kirihara's smirk starts to fade, along with his red eyes, as he sees how much damage he has done to Ryoma; even after he said he had changed. The doctor quickly finishes up bandaging Ryoma's leg and faces the others, "I think he might have broken a rib, so we're going to have to send him to the hospital for an X-ray." At this, Kirihara turns around and dashes out of the court, not bothering to pick up his tennis racket that had fallen on the ground. He brushes past Sanada, who finally has gotten to the courts. "Kirihara!-" Sanada yells, but disregards him, and continues his walk to the courts. As soon as he sees the blood, he breaks into a mad run.

* * *

'_You know, I told you a demon couldn't change_.' An evil voice jeered at Kirihara. 

_'That voice! It's back!_' Kirihara thought wildly.

_'Of course I'm back. I am you, after all_.' The voice cackled inside his head as Kirihara runs faster, clutching his head, screaming.

* * *

Back on the courts, by now, everyone is gathered around Ryoma. Fuji had come back for Sanada and when he had seen what had happened, ran back to the other coaches, yelling at them to follow him. Out of curiosity, the other players followed Fuji also. Two men helped Ryoma onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. Ryoma is still sweating, now reassuring his teammates that he's okay, "Keh, I still haven't finished my match with Kirihara." Even though he says this with an arrogant smirk, several others note that he winces in pain. The stretcher is lifted into the ambulance and one of the doctors turns to the crowd. "One person may follow him to the hospital." He then quickly turns and walks to sit in the ambulance. When no one steps forward, he turns back, "Hurry!" 

With a silent unanimous vote, the tennis players decide that Coach Ryuzaki should be the one to follow, and she climbs into the vehicle. "We'll see you at the hospital." With that, the doors shut and the ambulance speeds through the streets, its sirens wailing the whole way. The crowd stood there for a while, watching the ambulance drive out of their sights until the two remaining coaches; Sakaki and Hanamura told them to leave the scene.

"You still have a month of camp left, get back to your groups and we'll assign a group to each member of Ryuzaki's cluster." Sakaki ordered and turned around to walk away.

"Iie." A voice sounded out and everyone turned to see who it was. They were met with the open eyes of Fuji. "Teammates of Echizen-kun should at least be able to visit the hospital."

"You will be able to visit him during your recreational time or when he comes back. For now, you have to work hard." Hanamura spoke up. She had a tone in her voice that made everyone take their rackets and continue practice. Fuji stood still for a while before deciding to finish his workout quickly so he could see how Echizen was doing later. And soon, the crowd dispersed.

* * *

A/N: The first part of this chapter is from one of the episodes, I just wrote it out. :-D Please review this story, constructive critiscm allowed. I pretty have the next chapter finished... just need to tweak it a little. And to readers of my other story, "Visions in Darkness," chapter four will be up soon, just need to get it through to my editor, C-Entury, who, if you didn't know, changed her penname to Spr1te Zer0, so check that account out! 

A little warning to all, the next chapter will be a little slow, but hopefully chapter three will pick up the pace. Finally, thanks to my editor - Spr1te Zer0, and please review! Constructive criticism allowed.


	2. Simple Times

Disclaimer: Me no own…

Chapter 2

Simple Times

In the ambulance, Ryuzaki watched over Ryoma, who was currently wincing in pain that was coming from his abdomen. The ambulance attendant had confirmed that he may have broken a rib. He would have to stop playing tennis for a few months before it healed, if it indeed proved to be broken.

Ryuzaki watched as Ryoma's mask of cockiness slowly broke and the pain showed how he really just a little kid; him and the other kids at the Invitational Camp. They all had matured beyond their years, developing their own style of tennis and devoting themselves to it. She worried about Ryoma. The others all had hobbies and actual lives outside of tennis, but to be truthful, Ryoma didn't. His whole life revolved around tennis and the determination to surpass his father.

How would he react if he couldn't play for months? He would be confined to a bed until his rib healed. Ryuzaki couldn't help but feel resentment towards Kirihara. He had no right to go and injure Ryoma like that. The ambulance came to a stop before the hospital as Ryuzaki realized that she had been lost deep in her thoughts.

The back doors to the ambulance opened and the ambulance driver helped the attendant wheel Ryoma's stretcher in. Ryuzaki followed the men into a white, sterile hospital room. Ryoma was lifted carefully and placed on a hospital bed. Ryuzaki watched as a doctor ran in, wearing a tag "Dr. Ito" it stated in bold Katakana letters.

She bent over Ryoma and carefully peeled the bandages off the boy's leg.

"What happened?" she asked suddenly.

"He was playing a tennis match and his opponent injured him." Ryuzaki replied automatically.

The nurse threw the bandages in the garbage as the doctor prepared a kit with a needle, surgical thread, and syringe. Dr. Ito then grabbed a pair of tweezers and cotton balls doused in anti-bacterial liquid. She dabbed the wound with it. She took the syringe and poked it through Ryoma's skin, near his knee.

"It's to get rid of the pain a little." The doctor explained as she saw the coach's questioning look. She grabbed the needle and threaded the surgical thread through it. She then proceeded with stitching his skin together. The nurse quickly cut the thread with a pair of scissors when she saw that the doctor was finished. She then grabbed the kit and put it aside. Dr. Ito left the room, causing the tennis coach to yell out after her, "What about his ribs?"

"I'm going to have to take an X-ray later of it, but not right now. I have another patient waiting and Ryoma still needs to wait for the pain in his knee to settle down a little more. I'll come back in about half an hour to take the X-ray, meanwhile you can sit next to him and fill out this form."

She handed Ryuzaki a clipboard and a pen. The form was basically about Ryoma's personal information. Deciding that she could not fill it out, she walked out of the room and towards a payphone. Pushing in the required change, she dialed a number. After two rings, a woman picked up. "Moshi moshi. Echizen residence."

"Ah, Rinko, it's been a long time. Is Nanjiroh there?"

"Ryuzaki-san. Nanjiroh is here, please wait while I get him." Ryuzaki waited patiently with the phone and heard loud noises in the background.

_'Ah! Anata! You shouldn't read these dirty magazines!'_

_'Noo... Give me back my books!'_

_'Nanako, can you throw these out?'_

_'Hai, obaa-san.'_

_'Nanako! Give me those back!' _

_'Anata, Ryuzaki-san is on the phone. She wants to talk to you.'_

_'That old lady? What does she want?'_

"Ah, Sumire- baa-chan. What's up?" Ryuzaki heard the lazy voice of the dirty pervert who was once her student.

"I'm at the hospital."

"Do you want me to bring something to you?" Even with the seriousness of the words, Ryuzaki _knew_ that Nanjiroh was laughing at her.

"_I'm _not the one that's hurt. It's Ryoma."

"Huh? What did that brat do this time? Walk into a door?" Ryuzaki sighed as she tried to calm herself and tried not to yell at Nanjiroh.

"He was playing a match against one of his fellow tennis players and got hurt. One of his ribs might be broken."

At that, Nanjiroh's voice seemed to become serious, "I'll be right there."

"Wait -" Ryuzaki was cut off as the signal tone could be heard. "I didn't get a chance to tell him which hospital we're at."

* * *

A car sped down the road, and it seemed as if the driver was either reckless, crazy, drunk, or a combination of the three. The driver happened to be _the_ Echizen Nanjiroh, retired superstar of the professional tennis world, now a lazy monk. Father of Echizen Ryoma, husband to Echizen Rinko, and a dirty pervert.

Usually, he was a funny, joking man, but now he was serious, like when he used to play pro tennis. But at the moment, he isn't playing tennis; he's rushing to the hospital where his injured son lay. Next to him in the car, his wife Rinko sat and in the backseat, his niece, Nanako, with Ryoma's beloved cat, Karupin.

"Anata! Slow down, we won't be much help to Ryoma if we're dead." The silence was broken with the sound of Rinko's voice. Obviously, she did not like riding in a car at such high speeds.

Nanjiroh didn't respond as he concentrated hard on getting to his son. Rinko smiled sadly at her husband. Even if they did seem like they hated each other, the father and son really _did_ love each other a lot. They liked to show their affection and appreciation in…odd ways.

Rinko was shaken out of her thoughts as the car stopped abruptly. She looked up and saw that they were finally at the hospital, in the parking lot. Before she got a chance to calm her heart, Nanjiroh had already pulled her out of the car and was already running to the entrance. Rinko looked back and saw Nanako carrying Karupin in her arms, running to catch up to them. Nanjiroh ran to the front desk, signing in and checking the room that Ryoma was in.

Luckily, he had driven to the correct hospital... after several tries. He then proceeded to run up the stairs, and when asked about the elevator, he responded with, "The elevator takes too long." As much as Rinko liked the concern that Nanjiroh held for their son, she really wanted to sit down and catch her breath. The last time she had actually done some kind of exercise close to what Nanjiroh did was after the match between him and that American man, Coach Smith. Don't get her wrong, she was also worried for her son, but she wasn't crazy... most likely because she didn't know much of what was going on. The only thing Nanjiroh had told her was that Ryoma was in the hospital.

When they had reached the third floor and ran out into the hall, the first thing they saw was Ryuzaki sitting outside their son's room. She turned her head and noticed the three people and one cat standing there.

"Nanjiroh, Rinko, Nanako-chan. Ryoma is resting in the room, the doctor is going to be back to take some X-rays in a while. She wanted me to fill this form, but I think that you should." As she said this, she bent down to rub Karupin behind the ears.

"X-rays? Anata, what is wrong with Ryoma?" Ryuzaki glanced back up at Nanjiroh, sighing.

"You didn't tell her yet? What kind of husband are you?" Ryuzaki turned to Rinko, "Ryoma was playing a tennis match against one of the tennis regulars from Rikkaidai junior high. The regular has a vicious way of playing, and Ryoma badly hurt his knee and one of his ribs might be broken..." she trailed off as she watched Nanako and Nanjiroh comfort Rinko, who started asking questions frantically.

As Rinko calmed down, Nanjiroh took the form and started filling in information about his son. As soon as he finished, Ryuzaki led the family into Ryoma's hospital room.

* * *

A/N: So, this week, I'm going to put the author's note right here so that hopefully, you guys will actually read it. The reason I'm not updating much:

Not many reviews… I'm not being encouraged so much

School… Since I'm going to 8th grade this year, I have to prepare like hell for the high school test

Laziness and my sis is hanging around…

Hopefully, I'll be updating more, but I want more reviews, (maybe 10?) I see all you people reading it, but not even reviewing! If you don't like it, please then review me telling me what's wrong. And it'll get more exciting soon, for those who think it's rather dull right now… Alright, back to the story now…

* * *

Gold eyes blinked tiredly and watched as four people and a cat walked into the room. One of the four people rushed over to him, and bed-ridden patient told himself who it was. "Baka Oyaji," were the first words to slip out of his mouth. The worried face relaxed into a soft smile as Nanjiroh turned to the others, "If he can insult me, I think the gaki is well enough."

He turned back to Ryoma and comforted him with soft encouraging words, telling him to sleep and relax. The hearts of the three other visitors melted when they watched the love between a boy and his father. Rinko, in particular, felt rather proud at how the usually disgusting pervert could swallow down his pride and show his love publicly. As the boy fell into a dark abyss of sleep, Nanjiroh watched at how the arrogant teenager could turn into a cat-like boy in a matter of seconds.

In his sleep, Ryoma seemed to be perfectly innocent... which was far from what he was like when awake. Awake, Ryoma almost made him cry... always calling him "oyaji," he wasn't even that old! And his reactions stopped being cute… Nanjiroh sniffed…

Meanwhile, Ryoma was lost in memories almost forgotten, but still visited in dreams…

* * *

_A five-year-old Ryoma is wearing blue overalls, a red shirt, and his trademark hat – a little too big for him. In his small hand, he grasps a large tennis racket, and in the other, a ball. The ball drops to the ground with Ryoma when he swings too late. As he gets up, he hears an annoyingly familiar voice. "Oi! Chibisuke!" His older brother, Ryoga runs up to him and musses up his hair, thoroughly aggravating Ryoma. _

"_I'm not that small," Ryoma makes an attempt at defending himself, but fails as his brother laughs._

"_You're tiny! You can't even hit the ball right! It's supposed to be like this," and Ryoga demonstrates his tennis abilities to Ryoma. The ball disappears into the street and Ryoma glares. 'Just because you're older than me by four years, it doesn't mean that I'm not going to become better than you.'_

"_Well, Chibisuke, kaa-san wants us to eat dinner now. You better come in," with that, Ryoga turns and leaves the small five-year-old standing on a tennis court. After a while, Ryoma runs after Ryoga and slows to a walk when he reaches his side. Ryoga grabs Ryoma and pulls him up on his back, giving him a piggyback ride back into the house. As the two walk into the house, the scene changes…_

_

* * *

_

_Ryoma is now standing on a tree branch, cursing his height as he tries to reach for an orange. He turns as a voice startles him, "Oi! Chibisuke!" The figure throws up a tennis ball, effectively hitting it towards the orange and bringing the poor thing tumbling down the tree. As it falls, it hits Ryoma's head and his oversized cap falls off his head. Hurriedly, Ryoma crawls back down the tree with his short legs._

"_Give it back! My orange!" The figure, revealed to be Ryoga, bounces the pained orange up and down on his racket._

"Yours?" he questions, "Is your name written on it?" Yes, Ryoga loved to tease poor little Ryoma… As he takes a bite out of the orange, Ryoma glares at his older brother, his orange was just eaten… As he daydreams about how he would feel when he could finally beat his brother at something, the scene changes again…

_Ryoma and Ryoga are standing face to face… well, more like face to chest, on their tennis court. "Well, Chibisuke, you've come pretty far… but you still can't beat me!" Ryoga sticks his tongue out at Ryoma and when Ryoma is about to respond, he cuts him off, "But you know, one day, you're going to have to beat me… Practice everyday and drink more milk." He uses two of his fingers to poke Ryoma's head._

"_Oro?" Poor Ryoma is very confused…_

"_You'll understand sometime soon." He turns away and walks away with his racket, "Well, I'm off!"_

_Ryoma runs up to his brother and stops him, "Where are you going?"_

_Ryoga shrugs and continues his walk, "Just somewhere, Ja ne!"_

_Ryoma is left standing on the tennis courts, watching his brother get farther and farther away from him…_

_

* * *

_  
"_Ryoma! You slowpoke, come on! We have to meet Ryu at the park soon!" A young girl tightly grasped Ryoma's left hand, running through the busy streets of New York. She wore a long baseball tee, red on the sleeves and white on the rest of the shirt. Around her neck was a leather cord, holding a small pendant hidden under her shirt._

"_He can wait a little…" Ryoma pulled down his cap and picked up his speed, pulling his hand out of the painful grasp of the girl's. Ryoma wore his trademark hat, and his black wristband. In one hand, he carried a can of grape Ponta, drinking from it now and then. Ryoma wore a black hoodie, unzipped slightly, revealing a leather cord, identical to the girl's, but his pendant showed, a small guitar pick hanging from the leather cord. _

"_You're so lazy, Ryoma. I don't know how you play tennis. Let's see if you can catch up to me." After saying this, the girl sprinted ahead, looking back only to stick her tongue out at Ryoma._

"_Mada mada dane…" Ryoma pulled his cap down further and ran towards and past the girl, reaching the park easily. He stood there, waiting for the girl, who ran in panting slightly. _

_She looked up, past Ryoma and yelled out, "Ryu!" She ran towards the boy, Ryoma trailing behind as she talked to the boy, Ryu. He wore slightly baggy pants, and orange T-shirt and the same cord as the other two around his neck. _

"_Ah, you two have finally gotten here… took you guys a while."_

"_It wasn't my fault! It was Ryo's, he is such a slowpoke." The girl defended herself, and put Ryoma in the blame. _

"…" _Ryoma stayed silent through the exchange, not bothering to get tired from defending himself._

_The boy laughed as the girl pouted from being laughed at. The three walked towards the center of the park, one drinking from a can of Ponta, one making fun of the girl, and one yelling at the other two…_

_

* * *

_

Thanks to all those who actually DID review and my editor, Spr1te Zer0… Check out some of her stuff…


	3. Diagnosis

Life's Lullaby  
Diagnosis

Disclaimer: Blada blada blada... um... I no own D. And Spr1te Zer0, my buddy, owns FeiZero and all members of it. I partially own Emiko (who's based off me). And I own, Jin (based off my sis), Chado (based off my bro), and Sei (based off Spr1te).

* * *

**Blah **is English, or Spanish... whichever...  
Blah is Japanese  
_Blah _is a flashback...  
_**Blah**_ is part of Spr1te's story... Check it out! It has our AU in there...

* * *

Gold eyes blinked away sleepiness as Ryoma finally woke up from his deep slumber. Sitting up, he stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking, 'That's not my ceiling…' When he averted his eyes from the dull color, the first thing he saw was a monk. But not just any monk, a perverted one – one reading a magazine, pages full of half-naked women, naked women.

Normally, one would be alarmed at seeing a perverted monk, expecting a monk to be more… interested in other matters, but to Ryoma that _was_ normal. Leaning back, he let himself fall back onto the comfy white sheets and pillows. As he glanced over at the clock that was ticking away happily in the room, he noticed that it was one in the morning. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep… again.

When Ryoma got up for the second time that day, the first thing he saw was a pair of worried blue eyes staring back at him. The owner of the eyes mewed and licked his face. Ryoma grabbed his cat and sat up. Looking around, he could not see anyone in the room except his mother, who was still asleep, and was about to lie back down again, until a figure jumped out from under the bed, screaming and making a ruckus. Any other person would have jumped back and screamed, but Ryoma was…Ryoma. He just stared at the figure and muttered, "Baka Oyaji."

Nanjiroh stared at him and for a second, Ryoma thought he could see a flash of concern, but it was gone as quick as it came… which was pretty fast. Nanjiroh turned towards his wife, "Saa… If he is well enough to insult me, he's in good condition."

Rinko stood up, now fully awake and pushed past Nanjiroh, quite comically. "That's what you said last time, and he ended up unconscious!" She turned to Ryoma, her voice changing automatically to a concerned tone, "Ryoma, are you okay? Do you feel fine?"

Ryoma turned his head, wishing he had his cap to pull down, "Hai, hai." Pleased with the answer, Rinko stepped out of the room, dragging Nanjiroh by the ear, as he was reading yet another non-PG13 magazine, whining about the pain. Nanako giggled lightly and followed them out. Ryoma sighed at his embarrassing family and turned his attention back to his precious cat. He could remember when he got Karupin…

_

* * *

_

_Ryoma laid peacefully on the green grass of his front lawn, cap pulled down before someone came along…_

"_Ohayo, Ryo-kun," a cheery voice called out. Before Ryoma could step out of the way, a slender girl had already glomped him. So he lay there, in pain from the surprise attack, wishing the girl would disappear already. Almost reading his thoughts, the girl huffed and pouted as she shifted on his back, "Mou, Ryoma. You're so mean. I can't believe I even brought something for you." He winced as the girl pulled out a colorful plastic hammer and bonked him on the head. "That's your punishment for being so mean to me," she explained as if it made sense. As she finally got up, poor Ryoma could see whom his not-so-mysterious "assassin" was. _

_The girl stood at average height for a 17-year old, her dark hair adorned with violet streaks. She wore light low-rise blue jeans and a simple tan sleeveless tee-shirt. A black wristband hugged her wrist tightly and she carried a red tennis racket and a cardboard box. _

_Before she showed Ryoma his gift, she examined him, making him turn around in circles before her. "You know, for a 13-year old, you're pretty short… You haven't grown at all since the last time I've seen you."_

"_You saw me last week, Emiko." Ryoma spoke quietly and curtly._

"_Yea, but you've gone long enough without a growth spurt…" Emiko stated rather rudely. "So, do you want to go play a tennis match?" Her expression changed quickly as she jumped up and down, anticipating the boy's answer._

"_Yadda." _

"_Mou! You really are mean, Ryo, I'm not going to talk to you," with that, she stuck out her tongue and pulled down her eye at Ryoma. Seconds ticked away, not even counting up to a minute before she spoke again, "So, do you wanna wait for everyone else then?" _

"_I thought you weren't going to talk to me," Ryoma stated, now closing his eyes on the green grass, letting his cap deflect any sunlight coming towards him._

"_I said that? Hmmm… " Emiko rubbed her chin in frustration, trying to remember what she had said a minute ago. "Do you like chocolate, Ryo? 'Cause I hate chocolate… with a passion… a burning one… yea…"_

"_Shouldn't you be at school with everyone else?" Ryoma abruptly questioned, scared of what would happen if he didn't stop her rant before it had the chance to start._

_Emiko grinned cheerily, "I should be, but I got bored during math. Anyway, Ryu, Taro, and Maho skipped, so only Rante and Sei are still in class… what goody two shoes." She turned her head up to the sky, and the two stared up at the clouds together. Emiko watched as a butterfly flew away and sighed, "I wish I was a butterfly… No one ever suspects the butterfly…" At this, Ryoma scooted away from her until he decided that he was at a safe distance. "Ryoma, I'm bored…. Do you want to go to the shooting range?" _

_Ryoma stared at her strangely before replying, "I'm thirteen…"_

"_So…?" Emiko replied, not understanding the point of what Ryoma was trying to tell her._

"_I'm underage and so are you."_

"_So…?" Poor Emiko could not keep up with the brainwaves with Ryo._

"_You're seventeen and you're supposed to be one of the top students at your school, figure it out." Ryoma refused to tell Emiko what he was talking about._

"_Oh… ohh! It doesn't matter, since Chado works at the shooting range, he can get us in." She grinned, almost sadistically at Ryoma, thoroughly freaking him out._

"_And risk his job?" He would do anything to get out of this…_

"_Meh, it doesn't matter. It's not like he enjoys his job anyway." Emiko spoke as if her brother's job was nothing, which it was. Chado worked at a shooting range part-time, but always came home whining that it was boring._

_Emiko and Ryoma sat in silence for another few seconds before the brown box that Emiko brought started growling and jumping. Emiko didn't notice this happening, for she was too deep in thought, but Ryoma did. So he poked her and pointed at the box, "What's in there, anyway?"_

_Emiko gasped as she remembered the box she had brought with her, "Whoops… I guess I forgot to put holes in it…" She reached over to the box, and picked it up. She then handed it to Ryoma, "Here, open it. It's your going-away present." Ryoma proceeded to open it, staring warily at Emiko's seemingly innocent smile. He took a deep breath and pulled off the lid, waiting for whatever was inside to eat him…_

_But all that stared up at him were confused blue eyes on a whiskered, furry face. He continued to stare at it until he spoke up, "It's a cat."_

"_Thank you, Captain Obvious for telling me what it was. What do you think about it?"_

"_I like cats…"_

"_Of course you do, that's why I got it for you. Even though I, myself, hate cats… with a passion…" She continued to ramble on until Ryoma stopped her._

"_Domo." He mumbled._

"_That's it? No hug or anything? That's all I get? You're so inconsiderate…. And I spent so much money on that stupid cat…" _

_Ryoma just stared on blankly, at Emiko's strange tendencies to be schizophrenic, "You're rich, you can afford to spend a lot of money."_

_At this, Emiko perked up, "Yup! I'm filthy stinking rich!" She stated with a grin, "But only you and Sei know that, and I'd like for it to stay that way." She used her index finger to poke him on the head before offering him a hand. When he stared on in confusion, she simply stated, "Everyone is coming here in about a minute, we should get up and greet them at the gate."_

_Ryoma could never figure out how she knew these things, so he ignored the hand and lifted himself up with his new cat. Emiko blinked and followed Ryoma out of his backyard with her tennis racket…_

* * *

A/N: Alright, people. I'm stopping you guys in the middle, 'cuz last time, this author note seemed to work. This is extremely important. Originally, I hadn't really thought of the idea of Ryoma getting together with anyone, 'cuz you know, he's _really_ going to have enough time to have a relationship while he's dying... Anyway... so, one of my reviewers wanted a yaoi pairing, which I'm totally for, so, ima (haha... how fruity) let you guys choose the pairing. There are, of course, certain restrictions... I'll only put the ones I want or am considering right now, but if there's a pairing you really want, then maybe I'll put it up. But, I absolutely abhor (ooh.. big word) the Momo/Ryo and Inui/Ryo pairings... Here are your choices:

Tezu/Ryo  
Fuji/Ryo  
Eiji/Ryo  
Ryo/Kev  
Ryo/oc (The OC would be a cold guy, colder than Ryoma... and hot... yea... definitely... Could be made as someone of his past. If you want, you can leave suggestions of the OC's personality.)

Um... can't really think of much right now... Oh, and yes, Ryoga _will_ play a bigger role in this story... he'll come in sometime...  
Reviews make me happy and motivate me to write... Wanna leave me one:-D cough how 'bout 500? cough hah... just kidding... but maybe at least 20? >blinks innocently...

* * *

Ryoma sighed, Emiko always was a bit of a schizophrenic… Her brother wasn't much of a "normal" person either, whatever you could call "normal." Both got bored very easily… You could usually see them skipping classes, hanging out at some café or just laying down in the grass. Emiko's sister seemed to be the only one who wasn't crazy. Ryoma was lucky to have her as his doctor, he could trust her to take good care of him. She, at least, didn't get bored of college or medical school, or he would be dead by now. Emiko's brother was currently working at a shooting range, and an underground weapons shop, though he was actually looking for a job in a band. 

The door creaked open and Ryoma snapped out of his small daze. He picked his head up to see Jin.

"Ohayo, Ryoma-kun," It was Ito Jin, Ryoma's doctor and close family friend, and the only one of her family that he could trust with his life.

"Ohayo," he mumbled out.

"Saa, you're still the grumpy little kid from New York, aren't you?" Jin smiled in affection for her patient.

"It's only been about one year…" Ryoma replied.

"Well, one year since you've seen Emiko, but about… three since you've seen me," She walked around the bed, grabbing Ryoma's arm, and doing all the necessary doctor procedures; checking heart rate, blood pressure, sugar, temperature, etc.

"How is Emiko anyway?" Ryoma wondered out loud about his schizophrenic friend.

"Well, she's been going to college in the morning and she says that she's bored since you're not with her." Jin giggled as Ryoma rolled his eyes.

"She's always bored… Is she still in Feizero?"

"Yea, with Taro and Rante. Ryuu and Maho left a few months after you came here. Maho wanted to sing and Ryuu is in a band now. He's in New York City now, supposedly, his band is on a tour there. I think they're called, 'Beck' or something… Anyway, Taro's the leader of Feizero now and Chado supplies their weapons and ammunition."

Jin frowned at this, she had never liked the prospect of her little sister in a gang and her younger brother also connected to it… "Well, luckily, Sei hasn't been dragged into the gang. She has a great mind, it shouldn't be wasted on a gang… She wants to be a journalist or novelist. So, Emi helped her out by buying her a laptop." Ryoma didn't bother telling her that Sei had been one of the founders of Feizero…

"I thought Sei already had one from Emiko." Ryoma pondered at this thought, Emiko was always buying Sei new things.

"Yea, well, she decided that her Dell Notebook was too 'outdated' so she bought her a Sony Vaio." She finished scribbling on a clipboard, "Well, seems like you're fine, but I still want to take an X-ray of your ribs just in case they're broken or fractured. I'll be back in a few minutes to bring you to the room. You're going to be confined to bed rest until then." Jin patted Ryoma on the head and left the room.

* * *

"I'm bored." Ryoma stated to the empty room for the umpteenth time. He sighed and called over Karupin, who had run over to a corner in the room and taken a light nap when Jin had checked up on Ryoma. He petted Karupin until the door opened unexpectedly for the second time that day and a nurse walked in. She walked over to Ryoma, rolling a wheelchair over to him. As she motioned for him to get into the wheelchair, he folded his arms and turned away, "Iie. I can walk." The nurse sighed, "No, you can't. Now get in." 

"Yadda." He huffed and went back to glaring at the evil chair. After a while, the nurse gave up and allowed him to get up out of the bed, and walked him down to the X-ray room.

* * *

He met Jin there, and she helped him stand a couple of feet away from the X-ray machine. She took a couple of X-rays of his ribs, and then helped him to sit in a chair until the X-rays had finished developing. 

"So, I heard you gave the nurse a little trouble…" Jin spoke up.

"Hn…"

"You know, you should listen to the nurses, they're just doing their job."

"Hn…"

She sighed, "Fine. Don't speak to me."

Half an hour later, another nurse emerged in the room in pink scrubs, holding a yellow envelope, "Here, these are the X-rays, Ito-sensei."

"Arigato, can you take Ryoma back to his hospital room?"

"Hai." The nurse helped Ryoma stand up and she led him back to his room, where he was tucked into his bed and left to die of boredom.

* * *

Jin pinned up the X-rays on a light board and turned on the fluorescent light. She studied the X-rays for a few minutes before turning the lights off and leaving the room. Outside of the room, she met Ryoma's parents and Nanako. "Echizen-san, Ryoma seems fine. He just has a fractured rib, so he needs to stay in bed and make sure that he doesn't move around too much." Both the Echizens breathed a sigh of relief as they heard the news, their son wasn't hurt badly.

* * *

Ryoma sighed and closed his eyes, hoping for at least a little rest, but that thought was soon stomped on and kicked at when a blur bounced into the room, capturing Ryoma in a death grip. 

"Ryo-chan!" Ryoma didn't need to even look up to see who it was. The girl proceeded to rub her cheek against Ryoma's, smiling, her eyes closed in glee.

"Ohayo… Emiko." Unfortunately for Ryoma, his senpais on the tennis team walked in, witnessing the very embarrassing predicament that Ryoma was stuck in.

"Emiko, maybe you should stop that, you're going to embarrass Ryoma…" A soft voice rang out in the room, causing Ryoma to thank Kami-sama for his blessing.

"Demo, Sei, I haven't seen Ryoma in…," she trailed off, trying to count the days on her fingers, giving up after a while, "FOREVER! I want to hug him until one of us dies or gets hungry… or has to go poopy." So everyone in the room looked on as the mysterious girl, now given a name, Emiko, joyously greeted Ryoma in her own strange ways…

"Oi, Eiji-sempai, do you know who these girls are?"

"I don't know, Momo… Maybe they're old friends of Ryoma-kun," Eiji whispered back, confused.

"Of course we are! Right, Sei?" Emiko beamed at the Seigaku regulars as Sei typed away on her Sony Vaio, not paying any attention to the conversation. "Sei? SEI?"

"Huh? Oh… yea… sure." Sei replied with a distant voice.

"What are you writing?"Emiko leaned over Sei's shoulder to read what she was typing on her very expensive laptop…

'_**The early evening was bleeding away, giving to a much darker sky, and Taro and Tojii were heading back to the hideout. They were just about to reach the door when Emiko burst out of the very loose door, nearly tearing the thing off its hinges.**_

_** She stopped, seemed to calm in a millisecond, and brushed back the oddly colored tendrils of purple and black hair. She smiled at them, and very politely stated to Taro,**_

_** "Your girlfriend was just kidnapped."**_

_** Silence.**_

_** Disbelieving, dead silence, while Taro's face was slowly darkening to an enraged, plum color.**_

"_**WHAT THE HELL?" '**_

"Are you writing about us?"Emiko asked incredulously.

"**Yeah, sure yeah…" **Sei continued to ignore Emiko while writing her story. At this, Emiko crossed her arms and huffed,

"You know I wouldn't have bought you this Vaio if I'd known you would pay more attention to it than me!" With that, Emiko grabbed the silver laptop and threw it out the window.

"Emi!"Sei rushed to look out the window and yelled at Emiko, "That had better not be broken! Go get it back!" She attempted to pull and push Emiko, to no avail. She stood her ground and looked at Sei blankly. After an awkward moment of Sei glaring at Emiko, Emiko finally yielded.

"Ok, ok… Sheesh!"To the horror of the Seigaku regulars, she calmly walked towards the window and jumped down the three stories. Sei stood in the room, tapping her foot and looking at her non-existent watch. The Seigaku regulars rushed towards the window to see if Emiko had survived the fall. To their surprise, she did.

They watched as she picked up the laptop and looked around to see how she would get back up into the room. She suddenly sprinted towards a tree, laptop in one hand and climbed up the bark nimbly with the other hand. She sat in the tree and yelled, "Oi! Can you move outta the way? Thanks!" Before anyone could actually get out of the way, she jumped… And landed on something soft… "Thanks for breaking my fall!" She smiled at the person, who turned out to be Tezuka. Ryoma groaned and buried his head in his hands as he saw what an embarrassment Emiko was.

"How'd you do that?" Momo yelled out to Emiko, surprised at the small show.

"It's not _that_ hard…," She trailed off, grumbling, "Freakin' weirdos can jump a hundred feet into the air to do some fancy-shmancy tennis move and they think they can't jump out a window a couple feet high…," she scoffed at the thought.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Here you go." Emiko handed Sei the laptop, miraculously unscathed. "But you know, I could've just bought you another one."

"It would be different," Sei spoke as her hugged her laptop in the same fashion that Emiko had hugged Ryoma earlier, "This laptop has grown on me."

"Like mold? Ewww…" Sei glared at Emiko as she made fun of her special "bond" with her favorite inanimate object.

"Humph… You just don't understand a true writer." Sei pouted and went back to typing furiously away at her precious laptop.

"Riighht…" Emiko raised her eyebrow at Sei and turned back around to Seigaku regulars. "Ohayo! I'm Ito Emiko, an old friend of Ryoma! You guys must be Momo, Eiji, Taka, Oishi, Inui, Kaidoh, Fuji, and Tezuka! Ryoma told me all about you!" She spoke, pointing at each regular as she said their name.

Inui was the first to break the awkward silence, "Ii, data… Seems like this girl knows Ryoma well…"

"Hoi, hoi. Ohayo! A friend of Ochibi's is a friend of ours!" Eiji jumped in, shining his bright smile towards the girl.

"Hai! Eiji-sempai is right! Ohayo, you can call me Momo-chan!" Momoshiro waved at the bright girl.

"Saa, Ohayo. Yoroshiku." Fuji smiled softly at Emiko.

"Fss… Ohayo" … Guess who.

"Are you alright? You didn't get hurt right?" Oishi fussed over her, making sure she didn't get hurt.

"Ano… eto…" Taka blushed, trying to speak when Fuji handed him his tennis racket, "OH YEAH! BURNING! GOOD MORNING LITTLE LADY!" Emiko chuckled at his horribly bad English.

"Ohayo," Tezuka stayed his icy cold self and Emiko frowned, "Oi, you need to be flexible in your face! Smile a little more!" Tezuka's hand twitched when Emiko decided to try to pull his mouth into a smile.

"Oi, Emiko. Stop bothering my sempais." Ryoma spoke up, blushing at how Emiko was embarrassing him in front of his teammates.

"Oh, so you decide to be nice to them but not to me! You should be calling me nee-chan! Waii! **Ryoma es un tirano**!" Emiko pouted, changing languages once again.

"Emiko, you're speaking in Spanish again…" Sei mumbled, without looking up from her computer screen.

Emiko stood there confused, until speaking, "Huh? I was… oh… Sorry! Hehe…" She scratched the back of her head, as the others sweatdropped…

The group continued to talk, or in Sei's case, type away, until Ryoma squeezed his eyes shut and grunted in pain.

"Oi, Ryoma. You okay?" Emiko asked softly, hoping that he wasn't in any real trouble. When he doubled over in pain, she fumbled with the call button, and pressed it continuously. In less than a second, a group of nurses rushed in, struggling to keep down the now convulsing Ryoma. One of the nurses proceeded to page Jin.

Jin sat at the table, sipping at her coffee, "I wonder how Ryoma is doing…" She looked down as her pager started beeping. "301…" Her eyes widened as she realized that 301 was the room Ryoma was in. She stood up, and ran to the stairs, up to the third floor, not bothering to bring her coffee. As she ran down the hall, she ran into a tall man, causing her papers and a few of her syringes to fly out of the pockets of her lab coat. She fell on her bottom, and winced, "Gomen!" She started to pick up all of her belongings and thanked the man when he handed her a syringe. He smiled, and said, "No problem." If Jin hadn't rushed off, she would have noticed the man pocketing a syringe and smiling triumphantly.

As she rushed in, a nurse walked over to Jin, informing her of what had happened. Jin pushed through the crowd of nurses and Seigaku regulars and pulled out a syringe of painkillers from her pocket. A nurse sterilized it and Jin tapped it to make sure that there were no air bubbles in it. She worked quickly, puncturing Ryoma's vein and pumping in the liquid. After a while, Ryoma stopped squirming around, and Jin wiped her forehead of sweat. She sighed, and turned to the visitors, "Gomen ne, demo, you guys are going to have to leave now. Ryoma needs his rest."

"Nee-chan, can't we stay a little longer?" Emiko whined at the doctor as the Seigaku regulars continued to stare wide-eyed at what had just happened.

"Iie. Anyway, don't you have to get to the college soon?"

"I can skip –" She was cut off as Jin pulled out a plastic hammer that squeaked when Jin bonked her sister on the head continuously, "Iie. You have to go to school. Now, leave!"

Emiko pouted at her "meanie" sister, holding her head in "pain", "Fine!" She grabbed Sei's wrist and pulled her out the door. Once she left, Jin turned back to the Seigaku regulars and smiled, "Gomen, demo, you have to leave also." The Seigaku regulars walked out of the room, afraid to face her wrath… and her plastic hammer…

Jin turned towards the nurses, "I'm sure you can handle things here. I'm going to go back to my lunch break." The nurses nodded and Jin walked out the door, heading down the hallway to the elevator. As she made her way to the cafeteria, she brushed past a man who seemed to be rushing out of the hospital. She turned her head back, feeling as if the man seemed familiar, but shook her head and continued on her way…

* * *

A/N: Thanks to my buddy, Spr1te Zer0 for editing and shtuff... Oh yeah, and I totally agree with her on the fact that not all 13 year olds are ditzy writers... we go to a "special" school... The teachers like to call it "intellectual"... Our teachers are so kick-ass... muahaha... oh yeah, just so you don't get confused, I'm 13 also... And I'm writing this stuff... (which I think is crap compared to Spr1te's stuff... you should read some of her poems... if she posts them...) Anyway... all you Inuyasha fans should check out her writing... I think she's written some CCS and Teen Titans... I think... hm... anyway, next chappie will also take a while, I apologize... Oh, and you guys who also read my Naruto story, seriously need to leave me a review suggesting ideas for the next chapter, or it'll never get off the ground...  



End file.
